just started...

Suite Francaise (Irene Nemirovsky) today...

LibraryThing

been adding books like crazy to LibraryThing this lunchtime... it's rediculously addictive! especially when you (i) realize you (i) can't remember even my favorite books - and that's just the thing, because i can remember that there are books i know i respect beyond respect, but can i remember what they are when i ask myself...

this morning's journey to work...

forgot to pick up my book ('Frankie and Stankie' - nearly finished; and it's just got better and better - she's a great writer...) as i sneaked out this morning, so it was on with the ipod, which is currently a bit out of date ith the music i've recently bought. i fell back on two favorites - and thought i'd mention here (in a beef-out-my-profile way) they're greatness... U2's War and Nivana's Nevermind are classics it's clear - and War is rapidly becoming my favorite album... i simply can't find anything i don't like about it, apart from having heard New Years Day a few too many times in my life.

don't miss Carter

don't miss 'Carter beat the devil' by Glen David Gold. it's surely one of the most enjoyable reads i've had in a fair while. i'm a sucker for historical fiction, and this is a really fine example of taking the historical thread and weaving a great story - so well told - around it.

now moved on to Barbara Trapido's 'Frankie and Stankie', which is somewhat of a slow burner; but now i'm into it, it's getting better and better. the history of South Africa's there for the taking, but cleverly intertwined with a child's perspective and how it affects her. still reading...

keeping up...

it's pretty hard to keep up with everything, i'm finding... especially when your kids are obviously colluding to keep you awake practically all night every night... our two-year-old, who never stirs, was up nearly the whole night last night... it was a laugh a minute, i can tell you. i've also got a nasty cold that is manifesting itself in one big hacking cough and constantly blocked sinuses. adding to the joy of being alive.

the office is moving from 'still' to 'stone cold silence'. even pins being dropped has been banned. there's the ubiqituous key-tapping hum - maybe that'll be the tinnitus of the future.

it was valentines yesterday, and we exchanged cards. poll out-classed me by making hers. but both of us failed to get the heart-felt message written - but i guess recognizing that is pretty much the same as having written it in the first place. we cooked together - poll made a chorizo and butter bean bake and i made pudding - aunt sally, a 'deconstructed apple charlotte', the recipe said. our oven is basically a nuclear installation in disguise, so when i checked it ten minutes early it was obviously burnt across the top, and looking like it had self-deconstructed in the cooking process... tasted alright with enough cream though.

moved on to Louis Sachar's 'Holes' now. finished 'The Vesusius Club' about a week ago. it was ok - a simply entwined Edwardian adventure tale. i thought it might develop the humour, but it stayed at pretty much the same level it reached from the first few pages. i've actually just finished 'Holes' today. it was a quick, kids-book read - along the same lines as Paul Coehlo's 'The Alchemist', but more down-to-earth and readable. i actually thought it might be going along the same lines as Magnus Mills' 'The Restraint of Beasts' initially, but no.

another day...

another bother. more glum faces on the desk's around me. cheer up, eh.

but i've started a new book: "The Vesuvius Club", by Mark Gatiss, from The League of Gentleman. looks good. reads well. to page 8, that is.

can't see much on the tech horizon but for the launch of tediously uneventful Vista (got it here at work a couple of days ago and it's no great shakes - apart from a load more packaged Windows software and a flashy if ineffective interface) and the disappointment of a dead connection between this blog and Picasa's Hello: 'bloggerbotisdead' is not too great a welcome. pointed to snapdrive and hopefully get some results there.